Orion Ussner kidder

English prof at FDU Vancouver, specializing in composition and comics scholarship. Dad, nerd, writer of SF/F fiction (see me on writing.exchange).

he/him:

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orionkidder_at_mas.to@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-06-20 21:01:38 UTC

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Noted!
I want this framed on my wall:
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/116/784/447/829/985/751/original/6c69baf5a8c2a4f6.png

2026-06-20 18:32:57 UTC

I assume that @npub1fdr…lvhs has seen this, but if not:
Here's THE NIB's take on "Ludditism." It's damn good.
https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/

2026-06-19 21:42:11 UTC

Today's owner class would 100% reinstate slavery if they could, and the neoliberals and fascists currently occupying our government buildings would help them do it.
Happy #Juneteenth.
#politics #USPol #CanPol

2026-04-09 16:12:43 UTC

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https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360043273491-In-App-Notification-Options#ios_notification_options
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/116/375/627/351/348/535/original/469d27042593712a.png

2026-03-06 00:59:11 UTC

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Read the article. The were required by Swiss law to give up credit card information, and the Swiss government handed that off to the US government. Proton Mail had no choice. The Swiss should tear up their treaties with the US.

2026-03-06 00:57:36 UTC

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Read the article. The Swiss government required they give up credit card information, and the Swiss government has pre-existing agreements with the US government. Proton did not give information to the FBI at all, and they didn't give up the information willingly.
This is why clickbait headlines are so terrible. A lot of people won't read what actually happened.
Edit: Of course, this is also why *everyone* should rip up their treaties with the US government.

2026-03-05 23:36:57 UTC

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There's a raging debating going on over at #Bluesky, but if you read the article, you'll see that what #ProtonMail did was comply with the law in Switzerland, as they are required to do. They were ordered to hand over credit-card information, which isn't encrypted.
At best, this article is a heads-up that if you want total privacy, you'll need to find an anonymous way to pay for your email.
It's not a "nothing burger," but Proton Mail isn't at fault, here.

2026-02-15 21:41:20 UTC

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I remember this controversy, but Ling doesn't appear to be referenced in this article. To be fair, I did a search for his name rather than reading it. Am I missing something?

2026-02-15 19:28:17 UTC

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Yes. This is it exactly. So much of America's "foreign policy" snaps into clarity once you compare it to how the British Empire behaved. The CIA loves to "divide and rule."

2026-02-15 07:14:07 UTC

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I'm not aware of these examples from Ling's activities. If you have links, I would be grateful.

2026-02-14 23:30:16 UTC

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He's on here but mostly posts on Bluesky: @npub1rfe…pfk4

2026-02-14 23:29:09 UTC

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Justin Ling, pro journalist, followed up on this and posted on Bluesky. Apparently, the name of the corporation mentioned in the files doesn't match Harper's. Harper is a piece of shit, but an Epstein connection is not here.
https://bsky.app/profile/justinling.ca/post/3metr4s3qjs2j

2026-01-25 23:03:30 UTC

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Good point. I do tend to forget that that's distro-dependant. I'm so used to installing Flatpak myself at this point. It's just part of the installation process.

2026-01-25 22:01:29 UTC

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FWIW, I think @npub1mvj…r582 from @npub1w2l…ttcq is right: don't focus on distros, instead think about desktops.
I know my experience would be a little different if I was using Gnome on Fedora than on Debian, but 90% of my interaction with my computer is Gnome.

2026-01-17 19:51:06 UTC

Periodic reminder: Support for #Israel is not "a Jewish thing" nearly as much as it is a "rich and racist" thing.
I'm not Jewish, so I won't speak to that experience, but the people I know who are truly seething in their rage at Israel *are* Jewish.
Just saying...

2026-01-16 01:11:57 UTC

I was thinking today, and @npub1fdr…lvhs corroborated it, about how the UK's liberal/leftist part has been called "Labour" for many decades. The idea is that workers--dare I say it *socialism*--is the core principle. The same used to be true of Canada's New Democratic Party, although without the explicit name.
#politics #BCPoli #CanPoli #UKPoli #GreenParty #BCGreens

2026-01-14 17:41:56 UTC

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Oh, I'm very into this!
What I want to know is whether you can use GrapheneOS as a genuine, no BS replacement for a fully kitted out iphone or android phone.
I want to know what gaps you bumped into.
I want know how much time it takes out of your life to keep the thing working.
I want to know if it's a realistic alternative to Google and Apple.
One last thing, very specific: is there a way to get GrapheneOS to play nice with Apple Calendar? (My whole family is on iphones.)

2025-12-20 19:37:41 UTC

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Dude! Mi amigo! Friendo!
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3MwtDFxzks

2025-12-20 19:35:42 UTC

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But it's like packing for a trip. You *will* forget something*, so don't be too hard on yourself when you find out what it was. If it was something that's merely a pain in the ass to replicate, then you did great.
*or at least, I will. I have to remind myself that I have ADHD

2025-12-20 19:35:20 UTC

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I hear you! It took me a long time to really really understand where *all* my stuff is.
Browser history is the big one, but that's largely solvable these days.
The thing I don't know how to save is all my settings in, say, LibreOffice, which I customized the hell out of back when it was my primary writing tool, or that *one* checkbox in Scrivener that makes my life 50% less annoying. For that, I make manual records.

2025-12-20 19:32:58 UTC

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Good news about Cinnamon is that you can fiddle with it if you want, but you really don't have to. It's laid out in a rational, familiar way. Everything is basically where you'd expect it to be. It's almost boringly easy to use.
Now, if you want to peak into the cutting edge of desktop design, do a live preview of Gnome (real Gnome, not Canonical's Gnome-esque customization). It's like someone iterated OSX *correctly*.

2025-12-20 19:30:55 UTC

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I cannot describe to you the relief of finding out I had a secondary backup. I would have to compare it to bodily functions.

2025-12-20 18:09:47 UTC

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BTW, someone once told me, the number of backups you actually have is the number you possess *minus one*. If you have "one," then you have ~none~.
I once did a full reinstall only to find my backup drives had "fatal errors." Everything was gone. All of my creative writing, all of my professional writing, all of it. I cried.
Then I remembered I'd made secondary backup.

2025-12-20 18:07:23 UTC

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Mint is good! Mint is familiar if you're a Windows user. It's really new-to-Linux-friendly, too. I don't think I realized how much it was walking me through the transition until I switched to one that assumes experienced users.
Burning the boat. Good metaphor. As long as you have all the data that's really precious, you know you're ultimately safe.

2025-12-20 17:51:37 UTC

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I made the switch earlier this year. I remember the trepidation. I thought I was protecting myself by removing my old SSD so that I had it as a backup. I had no idea how much that would scramble my computer's brains.
Which distro did you decide to go with?

2025-12-17 02:46:51 UTC

Okay, who's got plans for when Mozilla finally folds? They are barrelling towards a brick wall and have not taken their foot off the gas.
I'm typing this on Waterfox, but I worry that the Firefox forks will wither away once Mozilla's gone.
What's everybody going to use when that happens and/or what are you using now that's non-Firefox?
#FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #Linux #Debian #Gnome #Firefox #Mozilla #Waterfox #LibreWolf

2025-10-26 02:13:29 UTC

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Oh, agreed. No question. But I *can* be immersed in the stuff I love without a huge amount of effort, and as a white man, like 90% of media is already aimed at me.
So, like, I'm good.

2025-10-26 02:11:39 UTC

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Yeah, I guess that'd be nice, but on second thought, every newspaper already has an entertainment section, and thanks to media fragmentation, I can soak in D&D and Star Trek all day if I want to. I mean, I hear what you're saying, and it does sound good, but we're *kind of* already there.

2025-10-26 01:22:55 UTC

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Ha! I can see what you mean. That's a really interesting way to look at it.

2025-10-26 01:18:12 UTC

Seeing people post about #sports is like looking into an alternate dimension. It seems fun over there, I guess? I mean, it's not *StarTrek, but I wish them well.

2025-10-10 21:23:54 UTC

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It's because Grillo was doing another show and couldn't have white hair for that one. I share your frustration, but it's also television, and I think we as audiences are capable of rolling with it.
Gunn's cheeky explanation, if you want one, is that Flagg Sr. dyes his hair because he's vain. :)

2025-09-05 03:04:59 UTC

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100%. His actions and words betray what he believes: that only the "fit" should survive. If a disease kills you, then you deserve to die.
And yes, it's *deeply* classist. He thinks it's not blocking vaccines to make people pay $200 out of pocket. Privileged idiots think that.

2025-08-26 18:12:37 UTC

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The oil industry is dying, but credulous governments are still in thrall.

2025-08-21 18:49:14 UTC

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Hell yes:
"According to Kan, Israel’s national broadcaster, during the last offensive in May, over 40 per cent of soldiers did not show up to reserve duty – a stark contrast to the start of the conflict, when Israeli media reported that 135 per cent of people showed up."
Military. Strike.

2025-08-15 04:32:41 UTC

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I hear ya. I would love avoid running Scrivener in Lutris. You have to decide what's a bigger pain in the ass: making things work in Linus or dealing with Windows. (And you have to decide what your values are, too.) Everyone's different.

2025-08-15 02:38:45 UTC

Hey, Linux people: a LOT of folks are screaming off Windows right now.
Be. Kind. To. Them.
They don't know much yet, so they are going to ask really basic questions. If you're KIND, you might get some to give it a try and stick to it bc they know they can ask for help. If you're unkind, you're showing them using Linux will be *worse* than Windows. If you can't bring yourself to be kind, then SAY NOTHING. Let others pick up that slack.
#FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #Linux #Ubuntu #Debian #LinuxMint

2025-08-03 00:05:04 UTC

There's a #Firefox addon that fills out those "can we please track you forever?" cookie popups. I used it for years and loved it, but I lost it in a reinstall, and I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called.
it shows up as a dark blue box with light blue highlighting. If anyone knows what it is, please tell me. I miss it dearly.
#FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #Linux

2025-07-30 16:16:39 UTC

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They also *don't* host adult material because... they don't.
So they are perfectly capable of censoring material that they don't want to be part of their "brand."
Which means they're *choosing* Nazis, actual straight-arm-saluting Nazis, over honest, hard working pornographers.
And that's why i will never given them a single, shiny nickel.

2025-07-23 18:09:35 UTC

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There's a theme, here, of governments giving up their responsibilities to private institutions: no more public housing when you can give tax breaks to construction companies, sell off the mail service, contract municipal parking to a corporation, get big tech to literally police free speech. There's a thread, here, of government giving up on being government.

2025-07-07 22:08:09 UTC

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Streisand Effect.

2025-06-22 23:41:43 UTC

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Maybe, but #PicksAndShovels really feels like the origin story to me. It touches on and strongly implies Marty's teens so that it can get him to university.
Personally, I'd like to see his early forensic accountant adventures: in his prime, doing his thing, maybe getting into the occasional actual scrape.
Hint hint, @npub1fdr…lvhs

2025-06-21 05:28:33 UTC

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Which implies the next one will be about him taking math classes in high school. :)

2025-06-21 01:01:46 UTC

I just finished #PicksAndShovels last night. Really fun read. It clearly comes from @npub1fdr…lvhs's heart. I won't say anything about the plot bc it unfolds beautifully and then folds itself up in a very satisfying way, but I will say that along with being a thriller set in the early days of computing, it's a coming-of-age story about being young and full of good intentions but with lots and lots to learn. I think a lot of men will relate to it. I hope it's not the last Hench novel!

2025-06-12 01:00:30 UTC

I really want to buy a used/refurbished Thinkpad as my new laptop, preferably an "enterprise" unit. I will put Linux on it, and I want an OLED screen (as well as decent speakers and camera if at all possible). Is eBay my only option? Opinions welcome.
#Linux #Thinkpad #OLED #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource

2025-05-28 15:49:20 UTC

Mastodon is full of queer people, communists, anarchists, and Linux nerds.
I really love it here.
#Linux #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #communism #anarchism

2025-05-25 17:48:11 UTC

Hey, ever notice how people in power ~HATE~ collective activism: protests, unions, solidarity movements, etc.? And that they'd much rather you act individually and "politely"?
There's a reason. Collective action *works* and individual politeness DOES NOT.
It's not complicated.
#solidarity #organize #unionize #collectivism

2025-05-25 17:47:24 UTC

Periodic reminder: #Substack profits off Nazi pages bc they don't want to be "in the censorship business," but they also won't host adult content, so they ARE in the "censorship business." They just think Nazis are better than pornographers.
This is why I will never give Substack a single shiny nickel.

2025-05-13 16:06:55 UTC

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Yes, click or tap the three dots. "Mute conversation." You can also mute him for an hour or two. Up to you.

2025-05-13 04:09:37 UTC

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I don't think he's "on your case." He's just adding information to the discussion. I don't even think it's directed at you, exactly. Maybe just let it go.

2025-05-12 15:38:29 UTC

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I may be deluding myself, but I read quite a few "AI" "essays" every semester, so I do think I'm catching a lot of what this article describes--eg, grammatically "perfect" sentences--but it's a good wake-up call to what I'm *not* seeing.
Thank you for posting!

2025-05-11 17:11:58 UTC

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#CoryDoctorow calls it #xenoforming transforming the Earth so it is no longer habitable by the human species.
Edit: @npub1fdr…lvhs
I think he likes being tagged when his terms come up, but he'll tell me if he doesn't :)

2024-11-22 15:50:43 UTC

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That's true. The text isn't there.

2024-11-21 05:59:35 UTC

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I've been using Libre (originally OOo) for twenty years, and I would like to hear more about this idea.

2024-11-12 23:57:31 UTC

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Yeah, I remember a threat on Twitter critiquing nerd culture, and it was a fair op about nerd masculinity being deeply toxic, but it was talking about nerds as if they're all white men, and like, that's just not true, and I'd argue it's part of the problem; ie, when white male nerds act as if anyone who's not white and male is an invader in their sovereign, social territory.

2024-10-27 02:51:35 UTC

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They think that's a bunch of [insert misogynist and homophobic adjectives here] "kid stuff."

2024-10-19 21:29:58 UTC

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Colonial cultures are good soil for fascism.

2024-09-30 23:19:18 UTC

What is #Israel even trying to accomplish? Are they trying to take land? Do they think their US-supplied military hardware is so advanced that they'll win an all-out regional war with enemies on all sides? What can the actual objective possibly be?
This is why we (mostly) don't have kings any more. One man's* personal desires--in this case, Netanyahu staying out of jail--should never be placed over the safety of so so many people.
I'm filled with grief and rage every day.
#Lebanon #war

2024-09-30 17:52:07 UTC

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Yes and: the long view of history shows us that that's also true of monarchy, colonialim, theocracy, and other powerful social systems. That's not to say that it's "fine" or something. It's to say that while capitalism does this in a specific way--as you say, coding greed as "productive," and coding production as virtuous--that both has loads in common with previous models of autocracy but is also specific to capitalism.

2024-09-28 17:03:28 UTC

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All true. I'm glad to see Trudeau and the Liberals call them out on it, though. They know, now, that he's not going to get flustered and angry. He's just going to say, hey, that was homophobic. I loath a lot of things about Trudeau. I think most of his liberal values are performative--I suspect he's not much an actual feminist, for example--but this performance was probably effective.

2024-09-22 22:56:41 UTC

So I take it some fresh batch of racism just cropped up around here, again?
It's hard to defend this place when we tolerate the bigots. It's impossible when we allow them to flourish.
(I have stopped defending or recommending this place, despite the comfortable space I've carved out for myself.)
#racism #fedi #fediverse #mastodon #masto

2024-09-15 16:43:40 UTC

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Oh! Delete the original admin. I'd missed that step.
That is so so weird that that's even allowed to happen. It seems like the kind of thing that could/should be patched somehow. Like, it's an exploit not imagined by the creators, but now that it's known, it could be fixed...?

2024-09-15 16:37:52 UTC

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This is weird. I don't follow exactly how you're getting it to do that--just the ins and outs--but yeah, seems like kind of a giant security hole.

2024-09-05 16:05:25 UTC

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Liberals will side with fascists before they side with leftists. I must be extremely naive, because this still shocks me.

2024-09-02 18:33:58 UTC

Yearly reminder: #LabourDay was invented to distract from #InternationalWorkersDay, which lands on May 1 to commemorate the #HaymarketMassacre when police violently attacked labour rights activists who were demonstrating for the eight-hour workday we have today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair

2024-08-29 00:43:02 UTC

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Good fucking god. This is so transparent. And it could very well work.

2024-08-28 23:24:05 UTC

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IT's so maddening how many people don't bother to learn that BC "liberals" are just conservatives. It's not even debatable. They just are.
(Corollary: federal Liberals are pretty damn conservative, too.)

2024-08-26 20:16:22 UTC

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It's really sad. Every time legitimate objections to Israel's violence come into public discourse, the antisemites come crawling out from under their rocks and try to use it to launder their racism. Fortunately, we get to be consistent: racism is bad, regardless of whether it's aimed at Palestinians or Jews.

2024-08-26 19:58:12 UTC

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FWIW, I've decided, as a gentile, that it's strategically unwise for me to use it at all for exactly the reasons this thread makes clear. It's historically accurate. It's what a specific group of people call themselves, but it's also been used as an antisemitic slur, so if *I* use it, it makes it that much easier for someone to derail by accusing me of racism. So I'm not giving them that opening.

2024-08-19 02:12:08 UTC

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Oh I hate this so much.
"I am asking specific question X. Please, I need an answer to this question. I already said why. I already told you all the information about my system. I am very clearly asking just this one question."
"Ah, but have you tried solving an entirely different problem?"

2024-08-06 22:59:13 UTC

The earliest alleged Gaiman assault is now 1986, three years before Sandman. He was 25. This is not a problem of power or of a "permission structure," as I thought a few days ago. Given the evidence, I now believe he's a serial sexual assaulter and has been the whole time.
https://www.themarysue.com/neil-gaiman-faces-additional-sexual-assault-allegations-as-two-more-women-speak-out/

2024-06-29 05:56:38 UTC

So far, the mindblowingest thing about #linux is that it proves you never "needed" to turf your computer every four years. It's entirely possible (although I'm sure it's not *easy*) to make an OS that continues to work on fairly old hardware. #LinuxMint runs fine on a MacBook 2007. That's not a typo!
This treadmill we've been on for decades where the newest OS starts to chug after a few years--so you buy more ram, bigger hard drive, eventually a new computer--it was always a scam.

2024-06-01 06:44:01 UTC

I realized today that over the course of my life, I've switched OS's once every 15 years or so. Ha!
#DOS / #Windows, #OSX, #Linux

2024-05-25 06:07:57 UTC

I keep seeing ads for suped-up laptops for #Linux, and that's great and all--I know a lot of people are really into just how damn fast they can download an update--but I'm way more interested in, "I got my MacBook 2007 to be perfectly serviceable with #DebianLight or whatever." I want to breathe life into an old piece of shit, not acquire yet another piece of tech I'll have to recycle someday.